Invalid Bitcoin Upgrade Causes Chaos

Relativity recent and certainly modern anonymous currency Bitcoin has somewhat botched an upgrade which has left many Bitcoin miners generating invalid data blocks.

This upgrade applies to a new rule which means that certain Bitcoin mining pools which do not validate their money, have been generating the aforementioned invalid data blocks. This could also mean that if a consumer is paying by certain client apps to for example a retailer, the payment in Bitcoins could therefore be invalid which means said shopkeeper has received similar to that of a counterfeit note.

According to the official Bitcoin website, if you are using a lightweight (SPV) wallet, a Bitcoin Core 0.9.4 or earlier or a web wallet, you would need to wait a quite staggering 30 confirmations more than normal. Of course if you are using a paper note with a historical face on the front, this problem does not affect you.

It also turns out that “around half the network hash rate was mining without fully validating blocks (called SPV mining), and built new blocks on top of that invalid block”. Without implementing validation, many large miners have lost over $50,000 dollars worth of income so far.

Bitcoin may well be the future but as a consumer, I as yet do not trust the anonymity or security of this currency. After all, in order to buy a Bitcoin, a consumer would need to pay using a form of payment which connects the individual. On paper, yes I know, Bitcoin has potential to expand, but until the finer details are ironed out, I think I will stick to physical forms of currency.